Starting out - on which foot?

This past weekend I attended two weddings, both rather spur-of-the-moment affairs, each involved a returned missionary.


In the first wedding, necessitated by young couple who had let their feelings go too far, and wound up with a child on the way, I have hope. He is from the Bahamas, and she is from Haiti, and they are both trying to learn to “fit in”. They are both very naïve, and love and care for each other, but really do not have any idea of how much their lives have changed, and are about to change. They were both living with relatives, and are now trying to get out on their own – with nothing but their love and a baby coming. They will need a lot of help and prayers and guidance.

But it is the second wedding that causes me the most concern. This returned missionary, only 24 years old, had already been married once, and divorced, and now has a pregnant new bride. I am certain she is in love with him, and I hope this time he is really in love with his new wife. I am concerned that he may have no more respect for this marriage than he had for the marriage to his previous wife. I hope I am wrong, but the impression I get from this couple is that this young woman, only eighteen years old was taken advantage of by an older, more experienced man who has not been upholding his Priesthood. I do not think he has even told his parents that he was getting married.

This is one of many times that I am glad I am not the Bishop, and do not have to be the “Judge in Israel”; being one of his counselors shows me entirely enough of the problems, concerns and issues in our little Ward.